Vodafone to manage bemobile

VODAFONE Fiji has been granted managing rights over PNG’s local mobile telephone company bemobile.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, however, said the PNG government would retain controlling interests in the network and had indeed agreed to increase its stake in the company to more than 51%.
The prime minister said the government had decided to transfer management rights be­cause the current bemobile management had issues, which they had not produced to the satisfaction of the government.
Also, Vodafone Fiji competes directly with Digicel Fiji and enjoys a greater market share in Fiji so it was felt that its experience could be used to reposition bemobile in PNG for better profits and make it more competitive.
While the PNG government is retaining its share and increasing it, other stakeholders in bemobile are offloading to Vodafone.
Although not yet confirmed, it is understood that Vodafone might receive 40% sharehol­ding and managing rights in bemobile.